


Impressions

by chris_araujo



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abusive John Winchester, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Art, Coffee Shops, Coffeeshop AU, College AU, Community: wholockians, Dean Winchester - Freeform, Destiel - Freeform, Impala, Led Zeppelin - Freeform, M/M, Sketching, Snow, TARDIS - Freeform, The Roadhouse, art major, castiel - Freeform, destiel au, destiel fan fic, destiel fan fic au, fan fic, fan fic au, sam wichester - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chris_araujo/pseuds/chris_araujo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester never lets anybody close to his heart except his brother, Sam Winchester. Everything changes when Castiel comes into his life and makes an everlasting impression.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Holy shit. I forgot I still had this up and running. I will be tweaking Chapter 1 of "Impressions" off and on for a while because god knows it is not up to par with what I imagined it to be. But please, stay tuned!

“Fuck. I’m sorry I’m late, Ellen. It won’t happen again.” Bellowed Dean Winchester as he sped through to the employee break room at The Roadhouse. He had plenty of pet peeves that would make his level of psychosis rise, but there was nothing that he abhorred more than people being late. He especially loathed it when he’d be the one who was late. 

“There you fuckin' are! You know I love you like one of my own kids and your studies come first, but if you leave me understaffed on a Friday night again, I swear to GOD himself that I will put you on opening shifts all of Christmas break with Jo. Now hurry the hell up and go get Ash off busboy duty -- he's scaring away all of the customers.”

“Yes, mom.” Teased Dean as draped on his on his misspelled “Den” name-tag Sam made him when he was younger and headed out to the smell of hazelnut macchiatos and americanos. 

 

Dean is no stranger to manual labor and hard work. After their mother died and their father become too indulgent and involved in his visions of drunken stupor, Dean became responsible for Sam. He taught him how to take his first steps across their linoleum floor, how to write his own name, helped with his homework as best he could, and would often have to forge John Winchester’s signature on field trip permission slips for Sam. Their father's excessive drinking often left him comatose for days and it got in the way of him being able to keep a job for too long; Dean had to find ways of being able to support all of them. He resorted to shoplifting and pick-pocketing, but as soon as he looked old enough, he started taking regular part-time jobs anywhere that he could. He voluntarily sacrificed his own childhood so that Sam would always have enough and never have to worry about anything other than just being a kid; he would rather rot in hell than let his father fuck up the only family he had left. 

As the years slowly passed by, John Winchester became nothing more than a memory as his addiction festered and gnawed at his life. In between his comatose episodes, John grew more savage towards his children, especially Dean. His aggression towards his children went from vocalization to extreme physical contact with a bat that resulted in several broken ribs and bruised body parts. When the physicality became not enough for him, John would disappear for weeks at a time with no contacted between he and Sam and Dean. John eventually stopped coming back to the house and left Sam and Dean to fend for themselves. Dean always knew that his dad would leave sooner or later and when it finally did come, he was prepared. He was ready to drop out of his senior year of high school to devote himself to strictly to Sam. He was prepared to work any and all hours at whatever jobs he could find to send his genius of a brother to college -- Sam had to go to college. He would rather be damned than see everybody in his family end up fucked up. As Dean was preparing to start working at a local Autozone and stop attending his senior year of high school, Ellen grabbed him by the collar as they were both in the doorway of his house and explained to Dean, 

“You listen to me, Winchester. I know your old man was a good-for-nothin’ sack of shit to you boys, but you are not dropping out of school do you hear me? If you really want to take care of Sam, you will finish school and get that diploma then after that you can do whatever the hell you want. If you promise me that you will finish your work and turn it in on time, you can work for me after school. If you fuck up even once Dean, I swear not only will you be working more hours with no tips, I will personally make sure you wish your daddy was back. Now, what are your plans after high school? Because you WILL be graduating high school.”

"I uh..." 

"Are you going to work full time? Are you going to college?" 

It was difficult to make six foot - two inch tall Dean Winchester cower with fear. 

"Because let me tell you what's going to happen after you graduate after high school, Winchester. You are going to work full time summers and part-time during the school year. That's right, you heard me boy. You are are going to school -- what you're majoring in is your own damn business but I better be seeing your tall ass walk twice to accept a damn diploma. Capiche?" 

"Um, yeah. Yes, ma'am" Dean responded softly. 

"Oh Dean. I love you, I really do. You're basically family and I want nothing but the best for you and Sam, but do you honestly think working jobs that only require a high school diploma will help put Sam through college? No. You'll be doing yourself and Sam a favor if you finish your senior year of high school and finish college." 

"Okay fine. I get it. School good -- dropping out bad." 

"Alright then. Now get your ass in that Impala and hurry up. Your shift at The Roadhouse starts...five minutes ago." 

"But I start training at Aut - " 

"Not anymore. You're starting training with Ash. Now 'git!" 

Senior year came and went and with the countless hours of studying with Sam in-between shifts at The Roadhouse, Dean was able to pass high school. One of the gifts he got from Ellen at graduation was that The Roadhouse would be Dean’s if he graduated from college on time and with no fuck-ups. Working at a coffeehouse was a vision that Dean was never able to conceptualize because he always assumed he'd be working on cars at one point of his life or another. He started tweaking and working on his father's pure black 1967 Chevy Impala as a way of circumventing reality -- as much as he loved Sam and as much as he pretended that his father's abuse didn't affect him, Dean sometimes needed recluse away from all the shit that surrounded him. He was good with his hands and everything was straight forward when it came to cars -- especially his baby. 

Dean was never much of a social person -- only interacting with someone out of necessity. The first couple of months he started working at The Roadhouse proved to be quite a difficult task for him. He detested waking up early, much less having to be socially friendly with people at ungodly hours. Dean knew nothing about how to make a variety of specialized coffees (the only type of coffee he knew how to brew was straight black coffee from the Value brand coffee from Walmart), but the longer he worked with Ellen, Jo, Ash, and the rest of The Roadhouse crew, the more he started to fall in love with the place. Working at The Roadhouse was proving to be quite therapeutic just like working on the Impala was. Being at work bolstered Dean's confidence in being around people without blowing a short fuse, but more importantly, it became a space where he could block everything that was going on in his personal life and focus on nothing else but making sure everything ran smoothly. 

 

Friday nights were always the busiest shifts to work especially since The Roadhouse was so close to campus and it was nearing winter finals, but Dean didn’t mind. On this particular Friday night, Sam was spending the night at Uncle Bobby's and Dean had no other previous engagements to attend to, with the exception of studying for his finals, so he was relatively stress-free. These kind of shifts were the ones that Dean enjoyed the most, even if he did spend them constantly on his feet going back and forth between customers; the TARDIS-like sound the espresso machine made when it was being used and the deep and heavy aroma the Columbian coffee beans emitted throughout the shop were just pluses. 

As Dean was bringing the small tai chi latte to one of his regulars, Garth, Jo made her way to his side and tapped him on his shoulder the way a younger sibling with a secret would only do. 

"Dean! Dean! There's a really hot guy at one of my tables that thinks you're fuckin' hot. Oh GOD, Dean, you don't get it, but this guy is insanely hot. Go say something to him!" squeaked Jo. 

"Jesus Christ, Jo. THERE'S A CUSTOMER RIGHT HERE" Dean choked out as a slowly turned several shades of crimson. 

"It's JUST Garth." 

Garth, not being able to resist expressing his opinions spoke out, "I resent that!" 

"Garth, shut up. DEAN -- You HAVE to..." 

Jo was abruptly cut off, "NO. Whatever you're about to say, my answer is no." 

"But he's..." 

"Go make yourself useful Jo and bring me the rest of Garth's order instead of some shmuck's number." 

It's not as if Dean was a prude, because he was the furthest from being uptight when it came the possibility of sex, but his focus wasn't currently set on climaxing at the moment. All he wanted to do was to do his job. 

The rest of his night was a constant repetitious cycle of cleaning, helping Jo with coffee orders, and making light conversation with the regulars. Before he knew it, the customers had all but left and Ellen and Jo were on their way out.

“Listen, don’t you work yourself too hard. Just wipe down everything and get out of here. You have finals to study for next week. Love ya’ kiddo.” Ellen patted Dean’s shoulder as she made her way through the towering French-inspired glass doors. 

“Clean Cinderella, clean!” Snorted Jo as she went after her mother.

“Finally, some time to myself” Dean whispered as he went ahead and made himself a caramel macchiato drizzled with copious amounts of caramel. Since he didn't have to go home right away, Dean plopped himself on the royal red chaise with his drink, that sat right in the center of The Roadhouse. Without any customers to complain about the musical selection, he made sure some Kansas was quietly playing in the background. 

"Fuckin' A, I swear, best part of the day" Dean muttered to nobody. Not having to work in the morning he allowed himself a quick nap, but before he could fully relax, his phone buzzed -- it was a text from Sam. 

Den...ur off wrk get 2 studying :-P 

"What the fuck...how did he...shit..he's right" Dean huffed. Sam was right. He had finals the next week and he desperately needed to study. He retrieved his onyx black messenger bag from the breakroom and proceeded to expel the contents which he needed from his bag. Out of all the classes he needed to study for, he settled on Art Appreciation. Art was not a subject that particularly interested Dean and so there was never any desire to want to learn what it had to offer, but he had no choice. There were well over a hundred general education classes he could have taken, but because he forgot about his registration date he signed up late and it was one of the few classes still being offered. 

Flipping through the pages of his binder, Dean found the one that he needed most: the prompt. 

Please compare and contrast the works of French impressionist painters Édouard Manet and Claude Oscar Monet. Compare and contrast at least 3 of their works and properly cite in Chicagoan format. This paper has to be 5 to 6 pages. 

There were honest attempts at overlooking notes and reading passages in books, but the longer Dean gawked at the chicken scratches that were his notes, the more frustrated he started to become with the daunting task. 

“Fuck this. I’m calling that smart son-of-a-bitch.” Immediately as he turned on his phone the image of him and Sam with their Joker-like cheasers on their roadtrip to Lake Silencio flashed on. Seconds after Dean punched in Sam’s number, Sam answered. 

“Bitch” chortled Sam as he knew who exactly was on the other line.

“Jerk” responded Dean.

“Are you doing okay at Uncle Bobby's?"—

“Yes MOM. I'm doing fine. You don't have to check up on me, I'm not twelve anymore”

"Oh wow, you're a whole fourteen years old. As long as you're under eighteen years old, I will check up on you whenever I want for as long as I want. Shouldn't you be asleep? Or studying?" 

"As a matter of fact, I WAS studying. What did you want?" 

"God, you're such a fucking nerd." 

"Is there something I can help you with, DEN?" 

"God damn it, Sammy, that's not my name! But yes, you can help me. Ungermyer has us writing this shit paper about Monet and Manet and since you're basically a fucking genius, I was wondering if you could possibly help me? This final is due Wednesday and I'm freaking the fuck out because I hate this shit and I have to pass this class, Sammy!" 

“Dude, first of all, calm down because you'll give yourself an ulcer. Secondly, I don't know much about them, all I know is that they're both considered to be pioneers of the Impressionist art movement." 

"SHIT. Fine. FUCK. I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do." 

"I know that when we have to do research for papers, the school lets us login to the university's online library database. They have a shit ton of articles about every subject. It's way easier than having to look through books." 

"Son-of-a-bitch, I left my damn laptop at home. I'll look when I get to my computer. Thanks for the help, Moose." 

"No problem, Den" snickered Sam as he quickly ended the phone call. 

Dean grabbed all of his notes and books and stuffed them in his bag and made his way to the back of the store to start the night's closing chores. 

Knowing Ellen would bitch at him for weeks if he skipped even one of the chores on the closing check off list, Dean sluggishly started to work his way through the list. After making sure there was plenty of stock for the employees that opened in the morning, making sure the bathrooms were clean, and making sure the floors were cleaned, Dean began to balance out the cash register. With "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin blazing in the background, Dean was completely focused on having the correct amount of money be in the cash register. When he had that level of concentration Dean was impervious to anything that was going on in the outside world; that is how he was able to block out baby Sam's cries of hunger on nights his father was too drunk to drive to the store to buy the baby formula. 

Somewhere in between counting Lincoln's and Dean belting out the second verse of "Ten Years Gone",the tiny brass bell on top of the entrance to The Roadhouse started ringing, announcing the arrival of a customer. The young man came in and shook the flakes of snow off his onyx black tweed trench coat and unraveled his electric blue striped scarf. The man's brilliant blue eyes immediately darted towards the off-key singing that was going on by the espresso machine. 

A gruff “Excuse me” came out of the young man that simultaneously made Dean’s adrenaline kick in and almost caused him to go into cardiac arrest. 

“Holy mother of GOD. Shit. What the hell man?!” Dean exasperated.

“Pardon, I was under the impression that you had heard me open the door and come in” He leaned in to get a better look at the name tag, “Den.”

“Den?” Dean was perplexed for a couple of seconds before he realized the name on the nametag. “Name’s Dean. My punk little brother made this nametag for me when he was little and I’ve used it for work ever since. I uh…I’m sorry to break it to you, but we closed a while ago man.” Dean was extremely fatigued and he still had to study some before he went to bed. .

“I'm actually not here to buy anything. I was wondering if I could use your telephone? My car broke down a mile away from campus and my cell phone is dead." 

"Holy shit, man. Wait, you walked a mile in this snow without even knowing if you'd find something open?"

"That is correct." 

Dean couldn't help but gawk at the man with a look of "are you serious?" on his face. The impromptu staring contest between the two quickly broke off as Dean offered him his cell phone. 

"Sorry. Sorry, you can use my cell phone." 

The man graciously accepted Dean's cell phone after Dean had made sure that all he had to do was dial and press send. 

Something about the man intrigued Dean -- he couldn't quite place what it was, but there was an energy about him that he found interesting. 

"Damn it, Gabe. Pick up your phone. My car broke down a mile away from campus and my cell phone is dead. I'm stranded at a coffee house across the street from campus." There was a tone of annoyance in the man's voice as he ended his phone call. 

"Thank you for your help, Dean." The man started to do his wrap the abundantly soft scarf around his neck and was headed out the door when Dean spoke up. 

"Dude. Hold up. You can't just go out and walk a freaking MILE in this weather. I'm almost done closing up, give me about ten minutes to finish up and I'll drive you to your car and we can take a look at it. How about it?" 

"I don't want to impose on you. You're closing and I'm sure you would like to go home quickly. No, that is okay. I can walk to my car." 

"And do what? Sit in your car and freeze to death? You don't have a cell phone to even call AAA for help. Dude, just sit down and warm up a bit and I'll take you to your car and see what can be done about it. I work on cars in my spare time, it's cool." 

The man sat down at the bar and laid his head down to rest as Dean made his way into Ellen's office to deposit the money from the cash register into the safe. When he came back, he found the stranger slightly snoring with arms folded and his head on top of them on the bar. Dean chuckled as he started to make straight black Columbian coffee to go. The smell wafted throughout The Roadhouse and eventually made its way to the sleeping man. 

As the man ruffled awake from his brief cat nap, Dean handed him a to go cup filled with his favorite blend, "Here you go Sleeping Beauty." 

"I am so embarrassed for dozing off like that. I uh -- I don't have any money to pay for the coffee. I'm afraid I can't accept that." 

"Don't worry about it. It's on the house. Now lets go see what's wrong with your car, hm?" 

"I appreciate your kindness Dean -- thank you." 

After putting on the alarm and making sure everything was turned off and locked, they both traveled towards the Impala that was parked right in front of The Roadhouse. 

"So, where to...dude. I don't even know your name." 

"My apologizes. My name is Castiel." Castiel extended his gloved hand towards Dean and Dean accepted and returned the favor with a hard gripped hand shake. 

"Castiel? Seriously?" 

"My parents are...a little bit obsessed with angels." 

"Obviously. Well, Cas. It's nice to officially meet you. Where to?" 

"Get on Stockdale and keep going until you hit Ming, then take a right and my car should be down less than a quarter of a mile after that." 

The Impala came to life soon after Dean turned the ignition key, "Listen to that kitty purr. She is gorgeous isn't she? I took her from my dad when I saw he wasn't treating her with the respect that she deserves. Isn't that right, baby?" 

Castiel kept quiet for most of the ride to his car, only responding in short and polite sentences. Dean wasn't normally chatty with people outside of work, but he felt comfortable around Castiel. He also hated to sit in prolonged silence around people besides Sam. The car ride only lasted a couple of minutes when Dean spotted the abandoned Nissan Sentra on the side of the road. 

"Seriously? A Nissan Sentra?" Dean almost chuckled at the thought of having to drive such a vehicle. 

"It's practical and it usually gets me to where I need to go" Castiel huffed. 

Both Dean and Cas got out of the car and trekked through the snow to get to the hood of Cas's car. Dean made sure he brought along his tools so that he would be able to inspect the car properly. He popped open the trunk and gave Castiel a flashlight, "Here. Make sure you shine the light in the center near the battery while I try to turn the car on to see what's wrong." 

Cas did as he was told. Dean attempted to turn on the car, but the car just chugged as if it were alive and on it's last breath -- he knew exactly what was wrong with the car. 

"Dude. Your battery is fucking dead. Like, I don't even know if running current will help it turn on. Where do you live? I'll take you home if you'd like." 

"I've inconvenienced you far too long tonight Dean. Thank you for your offer, but I'll kindly decline." 

"Cas. The snow is starting to pick up. You can't stay here waiting for some random car to drive by. At least call AAA and have them tow your car back home, will ya?" There was some reluctancy with Castiel, but he managed to call AAA and have them send over a towtruck to take him and his car home. 

"How long did they say before someone could get to you, Cas?" Dean was not about to leave him stranded and alone at this time of night and in this weather. Some people are fucking weirdos. Just last week some people in an occult abducted a nine year old straight out of her front yard. 

"They said ten minutes. There's a towtruck not too far from where we are at right now. Please, Dean, I'll be fine. You have done more than enough for me tonight. Please go home. I don't want to keep you from what ever it is you were going to do tonight." Castiel seemed genuinely worried that he was keeping Dean from something and he did not like the feeling. 

"The only thing that you're keeping me from is rewatching "The Dark Knight Rises" for the millionth time. Have you seen it?" 

"I can't believe I have, Dean. What is it?" 

"Wait a damn minute. Do you mean to tell me you've NEVER watched this Batman? GOOD GOD, MAN. HOW DO YOU LIVE?" 

Dean continued to talk about Batman and why Christian Bale was the smartest choice to play the role of the Caped Crusader. Dean never let Castiel get a word in, but Castiel didn't mind. He observed Dean and all of his extremely exaggerated animations as he was telling him the story of Bruce Wayne and how he came to be the Batman. Dean may have been over the top, but he showed passion and it made Castiel lightly smile. Frostbite may have been setting into his toes inside his boots, but he was thoroughly enjoying the company. Dean was interesting and unconventional and that intrigued Castiel to no end. 

Right in between his story about the psychosis the late Heath Ledger brought to his Joker, Dean and Cas saw the towtruck arrive. Not five minutes later was Cas's Nissan Sentra all hooked up to the towtruck and ready to be taken back to Castiel's house. Castiel came up to Dean and extended his hand out to him, "Thank you for your help tonight Dean, I greatly appreciate all that you have done for me and sorry if I kept you from watching Batman." 

A heartfelt laugh escaped Dean by accident and he too extended his hand out to reach for Castiel's, "You need to quit apologizing. I'm glad I could help." 

Castiel simply nodded at Dean and made his way to the towtruck. With a smile on his face he saw the truck disappear down the street as the snow kept on cascading down in light flurries, "What a weird fuckin' night."


	2. Chapter 2a

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changes!

Hey to the couple of people that have read this story. I'm not going to lie. I forgot all about this story and let it sit in the back burner for the longest time ever. Well, it is now up and running again with an edited "Chapter 1". The edits that were made to this chapter are kind of big. Garth was lightly introduced and more backstory was added to Dean's character. The ending between Castiel and Dean is also completely different. The dialogue is a lot less choppy and hopefully reads smoother. Enjoy!


End file.
